Gratitude is the key to fulfillment, not the other way around. The act of receiving is set in time, limited to a particular circumstance. It can be wonderful and impactful surely, but it is not what brings true joy. It brings rather a fleeting moment of delight and pleasure.

The true lasting feeling behind it, is the acknowledgement of the gesture, the gratitude expressed or felt which goes beyond the consideration given to the transaction, whether monetary or otherwise.

Gratitude is a meeting of hearts, an opening to the energy behind the gifting. It enhances and magnifies, allows to encapsulate the gifting and the receiving in a single act of Love.

Gratitude removes the notion of being deserving, of being right, of doing enough, and their counterparts. It leaves in its trail a profound and permanent imprint of joy and goodness. It manifests into being what the heart longs to express.

Through this expression, it reaches outward to who and what surrounds us, in a way we can’t measure or quantify. The more we become grateful, the wider our gratitude can extend, no longer limiting itself as a response to intended acts of kindness.

Gratitude becomes a way of receiving life in all its facets, the one we naturally rejoice in, but also, gradually, the not so welcome one; the ones we cast a negative judgement on. All those failures, near misses and rejections that brought pain but also great learning and purposeful opportunities.

When the not so comfy side of life is greeted with gratitude, it allows us to change our perspective and to align faster and with greater momentum to what is truly for us, what resonates with us. It brings us a life that is experienced deeply and with more intensity yet also more softness.

This doesn’t mean a life free of challenges, but living gratefully enables us to redefine the word challenge, to include in it the notion of gift. Instead of the polarity of pleasant and unpleasant events, we perceive the flow of life, instead of the exhausting see-saw of the ups and down, we navigate waves and learn to surf with them.

Gratitude is the bridge that brings the happening to its natural conclusion. It links the event to its purpose and leads us to an understanding of the order of things in our lives.

Being grateful is far from a passive submission to circumstances though! It is about acceptance, yes, but through the acceptance of what occurs, we can discern the action most appropriate to us, most aligned to ourselves.

Peaceful or explosive, a letting go or a kick in the anthill, the action and its unfolding will always be in our best interest and lead us toward fulfillment when eventually supported by and surrendered to heartfelt gratitude.